The Senegalese government decided on Tuesday to ban the circulation of buses at night between cities and villages as well as the import of used tires, following a collision which left 40 dead according to a new report.
These provisions are part of regarding twenty measures announced at the end of an emergency government meeting organized on Monday in the new town of Diamniadio, near Dakar, the day following the road accident widely presented as the deadliest. of recent years.
The tragedy attributed to the bursting of a tire drew a flood of criticism once morest the authorities for their inability to enforce the rules of conduct, but also the regulations on the condition of vehicles, despite the multiplication of accidents.
Buses, but also minibuses commonly known as “seven-seaters” will no longer be able to travel between localities from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.
Buses conveying passengers as well as goods are one of the main means of transport in Senegal, including at night, and cause many accidents.
Motors for transporting people and goods will be limited to 90 km/h. Passenger transport can only be operated for ten years, goods transport for 15 years. These vehicles can no longer be converted, for example to increase the planned number of passengers or install often overloaded luggage racks on the roof.
The collision in the early hours of Sunday between two buses in Sikilo (center), some 250 km from Dakar, left 40 dead, according to a new official report. “One of the (101) people injured lost his life during his transfer to Dakar” on Monday evening, the government said in a statement.
– Road sickness –
The accident has brought to light the evils of the road in Senegal, as in many African countries: dilapidated and dangerous layout of vehicles, reckless driving, or even widespread corruption of agents responsible for enforcing the laws or passing the license. To drive.
Road accidents officially kill 700 people each year in Senegal, a country of more than 17 million inhabitants.
In 2019, Senegal had a road death rate of 24 per 100,000 inhabitants, and sub-Saharan Africa 27 per 100,000, for a rate of 6 per 100,000 in the European Union and 2 in Switzerland, according to the World Bank.
The Senegalese authorities have been harshly criticized for not having applied measures already taken in the past once morest road insecurity.
Most of the measures announced on Tuesday will be the subject of an order to be enforceable within 72 hours.
They “should not be subject to postponement or compromise. We will be uncompromising with those who contravene the rules enacted to guarantee the physical integrity of our fellow citizens”, declared Prime Minister Amadou Bâ.